The present invention relates to devices and methods utilized to permanently install fixtures, such as a steel wall plates, a shelves, beds, cabinets, etc., to a wall in a security facility, such as a jail, prison, juvenile detention center, or psychiatric hospital, and more particularly to an embedable wall construction unit installable within a wall in a manner to have at least one surface exposed to the surface of the wall that is suitable for forming a permanent attachment with fixtures, such as steel wall plates, beds, shelves, cabinets, etc., to anchor the fixture permanently in place, and a method of utilizing the embedable wall construction unit for permanently securing fixtures to a concrete block wall.
It is a common practice within the detention industry and other public facilities, such as jails, prisons, juvenile detention centers, and psychiatric hospitals, to permanently affix certain furnishing such as the beds, cabinets, shelves, lavatories, sinks etc. and fixtures such as steel wall plates to the wall of the facility. A steel wall plate is a sheet of steel that is utilized to form or cover an existing wall to provided addition security within a detainment facility. Permanently affixing these fixtures to the walls prevents destruction of the fixtures themselves and reduces the likelihood of an inmate utilizing the fixtures as a weapon to injure a guard or cell mate. The conventional method of permanently installing these fixtures has been to form a cavity within a fully constructed wall unit, install a reinforcing bar or bars into the cavity, and then grouting the reinforcing bar(s) within the cavity using a cementing agent such as cement. A steel plate is then welded or otherwise affixed to the reinforcing bars in a manner to cover the grouted cavity opening. The steel plate acts as a mounting base to which a fixture mounting bracket, such as a length of angle iron, is welded or otherwise permanently affixed.
This method of permanently affixing fixtures to concrete block walls, masonry walls and pre-cast walls is labor intensive and leads to a degraded wall structure. In addition, the gap between the concrete block wall and the steel plate may be used to hide razor blades, knives, drugs, and other contraband articles. It would be a benefit, therefore, to have a embeddable mounting device that could be used in connection with a wall that did not provide a gap between the wall and a steel mounting surface and that forms an integral part of the wall construction. It would also be desirable to have a method for mounting a fixture permanently to a concrete block wall that did not require degrading the wall structure by forming a cavity within the preexisting wall during installation of the fixture.
It is an object of the invention to provide a embeddable mounting device that is used in connection with a concrete block wall, a masonry wall or a pre-cast wall and that does not provide a gap between the wall and a steel mounting surface when in use.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of permanently mounting a fixture permanently to a wall that does not require degrading the wall structure by forming a cavity within a portion of the wall during installation of the fixture.
Accordingly, in a first aspect of the invention, a embeddable mounting device is provided. The embeddable mounting device comprises a first rectangular metal plate member having a first inner surface, a first outer surface, a first length measuring between fifteen (15xe2x80x3) and seventeen (17xe2x80x3) inches, a first width measuring between seven (7xe2x80x3) and nine (9xe2x80x3) inches, and a first thickness; a second rectangular metal plate member having a second inner surface, a second outer surface, a second length of a measurement equal to the first length, a second width of a measurement equal to the first width, and a second thickness; and a pair of vertical spacer members secured between the first inner surface and the second inner surface in a manner create at least one reinforcing bar and cement receiving cavity between the first and second metal plate members, in a manner to hold the first and second metal plate members in parallel relationship with each other such that when said first and second metal plate members simultaneously contact a planar surface the first and second metal plate members are both perpendicularly oriented to the planar surface, and in a manner such that the first and second outer surfaces are spaced apart a spacing distance measuring between seven (7xe2x80x3) and eight (8xe2x80x3) inches.
The first length is preferably between about eight and one-half (8xc2xdxe2x80x3) and eight and three-quarters (8xc2xexe2x80x3) inches and the first width is preferably between about sixteen and one-half (16xc2xdxe2x80x3) and seventeen (17xe2x80x3) inches to allow the first and second metal plate members to completely fill the space occupied by a conventional concrete block plus the area filled by the cement/grout mixture that is placed between adjacent blocks and is used to cement a plurality of the concrete blocks together to form a wall. Use of the preferably sized first and second metal plate members allows the plate members to directly contact and abut the adjacent concrete blocks located above, below, and to the sides of the mounting device in the concrete block wall within which the mounting unit is installed or embedded. Direct contact with the adjacent concrete blocks eliminates the loosening effect that can occur by the shrinking or squeezing out of the cement or grout from between the adjacent blocks and the mounting device when the mounting device is installed with a layer of cement or grout surrounding the edges of the metal plate members of the mounting device. In addition, because the concrete block is harder than the cement/grout it is more difficult to dig out around the perimeter of the exposed metal plate members to create hiding places for contraband items.
A preferred embodiment of the mounting device includes a third vertical spacer member to create a pair of reinforcing bar and cement receiving cavities that are alignable with the reinforcing bar and cement receiving cavities of conventional concrete blocks and into which vertical reinforcing bars and a cementing slurry are introduced during installation of the mounting device. The term xe2x80x9ccementing slurryxe2x80x9d is used herein to mean any of the cementing agents conventionally poured into the reinforcing bar and cement receiving cavities of conventional concrete blocks that are utilized to add strength to the construction. In another preferred embodiment a plurality of vertical reinforcing bars are secured to the mounting device in a manner such that, when the mounting device is placed atop a first concrete block and below a second concrete block, a length of each vertical reinforcing bar extends into at least one of the reinforcing bar and cement receiving cavities of each of the first and second cement blocks. Each of the vertical reinforcing bars is preferably connected to the mounting device by welding, however, any method of attachment that holds the vertical reinforcing bar in a fixed relationship to the mounting device may be used.
In another aspect of the invention a method of permanently mounting furniture fixtures to a concrete block wall is provided. The method includes the step of installing a mounting device, of the type described above, into the block wall in place of one of the concrete blocks during construction of the wall. The mounting device is placed into the wall in a manner such that the reinforcing bar receiving cavity of the device is aligned with at least one reinforcing bar receiving cavity of a concrete block. A vertical reinforcing bar is then inserted into the aligned reinforcing bar receiving cavities. A cementing slurry mixture is then poured into the aligned reinforcing bar receiving cavities in a manner such that the vertical reinforcing bar and a quantity of the cementing slurry mixture fills the space between the first and second plate members of the mounting device. The cementing slurry mixture is then allowed to harden. After the cementing slurry mixture has hardened sufficiently to at least hold the mounting device in place, a furnishing fixture may be permanently affixed to the wall by welding one side of a section of angle iron to the outer surface of one of the plate members and the other side of the angle iron section to the fixture. Although it is possible to utilize a mounting bracket, such as a length of angle iron or other bracket configuration, between the outer surface and the fixture, it is preferred to attach the fixture directly to the outer surface of the metal plate member through welding, or with fasteners such as bolts, security bolts, rivets, conventional interlocking connectors, etc.
When threaded connectors such as security or conventional bolts are used, one of the first and second plates preferably has at least two apertures formed therethrough that are each in connection with an internally threaded, threaded connector engaging cavity. The apertures themselves can be threaded for engagement with a threaded connector or a weld nut can be aligned with each aperture and welded to the first or second plate in a manner such that a threaded connector can engage each of the weld nuts. When this embodiment is used, it is important to provide a covering for the weld nuts prior to pouring the quantity of the cementing slurry mixture into the space between the first and second plate members of the mounting device. The covering is preferably a material that will reserve sufficient space adjacent the weld nut within the space between the first and second plates to allow the threaded connector to be fully tightened. A section of foam type plastic material placed over the nut is preferred, however, a plastic cap adapted to the seal the nut from the cement slurry is also sufficient to practice the invention.